Chapter Text
“That’s mean, Kacchan! Can’t you see he’s crying? If you keep going I-I-I'll never forgive you!”
The blonde considered his words for a moment before shrugging and smirking. “Even though you’re Quirkless, you’re pretending to be a hero, Deku?” He punctuated the last word with an explosion from his tiny fist before charging forward, accompanied by his two minions.
The green-haired boy quailed back, his head buzzing (with fear, he had thought at the time). He did his best to brace himself against the oncoming punch, for all the good it did him. The blow glanced off his arm and hit him in the ear, the dull ache of pain spreading out from the points of contact to cover his whole body.
Well, no, that wasn’t quite right. The feeling that enveloped him was more surprising than painful. And it wasn’t really an ache, either; it was more like the weird itchy-fizzy feeling that he got when he sat on his foot for too long, but everywhere at once. Come to think of it, it also felt a lot like the buzzing that he had already felt in the back of his head. He didn’t have much time to think about it though, because he was too worried about the next hits from Kacchan and his friends.
They never came.
Tentatively, he opened his eyes to see what had happened, and was greeted to the sight of the four other boys staring at him with wide eyes, the playground warfare temporarily forgotten.
“K-Kacchan, wha-?” he cut himself off at the voice. That wasn’t his voice.
The blonde boy grabbed him by the wrist and forcefully dragged him to the edge of the playground, where Izuku could faintly make out their reflection in the window of the next building over. There, in the reflection, was Kacchan. And next to Kacchan was another Kacchan, but with green hair and green eyes and clothes the color of the ones Izuku had been wearing.
True, it wasn’t the most useful Quirk for a hero, and it wouldn’t stave off Kacchan’s anger in the long term. But for that day, and in that moment, all that mattered was…
“I HAVE A QUIRK!”
Yes, he had a quirk. And as soon as it had awakened, he had moved to use it without thinking.
Not all men are created equal. By the age of four, I had already begun to accept this hard reality about our society. But that was my first and last setback, because sometimes…
…Sometimes what you have starting off is less important than what you make of it.
Eleven years later…
“Since you’re all third years, it’s time for you to think seriously about your future. I’ll pass out handouts for your future plans now, but… you’re all pretty much planning to go into the hero course, right?”
“Yes!” The classroom exploded with excitement, with all but a few of the students showing off their Quirks.
“Yes, yes, you all have wonderful Quirks, but using your powers at school is against the rules.”
Bakugo scoffed quietly, “Hey teach! Don’t lump us all in the same group! I’m not gonna be stuck at the bottom with the rest of these rejects!”
The class exploded again, this time in anger, but Bakugo just sat up straighter in his desk and shouted back “All you extras should just shut up!”
“Oh,” the teacher said, checking a chart, “If I remember correctly, you want to go to U.A. High, right, Bakugo? And Midoriya, too.”
The blonde’s look darkened a bit at that, but most of the students were too preoccupied with discussing how prestigious U.A. was and how hard it would be to get in to notice. He fixed Midoriya with a sharp glare, and the green-haired boy shied away from his gaze. “Maybe, but I’ll be the only one from this school that could possibly get in.” He leapt up on his desk, confidence re-asserting itself. “After all, I aced the mock test, and I’m gonna be the one to surpass All Might someday and become the top hero! You should all just accept that none of you are on my level,” he turned back to Deku, a maniac grin on his face and bursts of light and smoke popping from between his fingers. “So, Deku, what makes you think you can stand in the same ring as me?” The old childhood nickname had mostly fallen by the wayside since Izuku had developed a Quirk; most of the time he was an “extra” or “reject” like everyone else. But sometimes it showed up again when Bakugo was feeling especially heated.
“I-it’s not like I’m trying to compete with you or anything Kacchan, it’s just, it’s been my goal ever since we were kids, a-and I won’t know unless I try-”
“So you’re taking the test for fun?! Don’t kid yourself Deku, even if you study night and day, you won’t be able to get into U.A. with a weak Quirk like yours.”
On the walk home from school, Midoriya thought about class that day. What if they’re right? I know my Mom says I can be a hero, but what good is a hero if they can’t use their power to fight villains or save anyone? He walked into the tunnel, flipping through the hero notes he had made that morning and muttering to himself. It wasn’t his normal route home, but he felt like he needed some extra time to walk and think today. Maybe he has a point about not applying to U.A. If I went somewhere else where I had a higher chance of getting in, then at least I might still have the chance to be someone’s sidekick one day. At the very least I should apply to multiple schools so that not all my eggs are in one-
“A medium-sized invisibility cloak,” the deep, warbling voice interrupted his thinking.
Izuku spun around, having been so lost in his own thoughts that he didn’t even notice the giant mass of slime sneaking up on him. “A villain-!” was all he could get out before being slammed to the ground and buried under a pile of sludge, which was forcing its way into his mouth and nostrils. In the back of his mind he felt his Quirk trying to activate, accompanied by an intense buzzing sensation wherever the slime made contact with his skin, but he fought down the instinct. He doubted if it would even work against someone who looked this inhuman.
“Don’t worry. I’m just going to take over your body. Calm down. It’ll only hurt for about 45 seconds. You’ll feel better soon.”
Izuku clawed at the villain, but it felt like trying to grab ahold of water. As he ran out of more and more breath, he felt his hold on his Quirk slipping, and he would have screamed if he could. Faced with this level of transformation (or mutation, there was really no time to figure it out), it felt like his Quirk was trying to melt him alive.
“Thanks for your help. You’re my hero. I didn’t think that had come to this city.”
The buzzing slowly gave way to numbness and weakness, and all Izuku could think was Am I dying? Somebody… No… In his last moments of consciousness, he heard a voice. One that only made him all the more certain that he was dead, because there was no way that person was actually here.
“It’s alright now, young man. I am here!”
He felt the slime writhing around. Someone shouted something in the distance, and Izuku felt himself get launched through the air (yet more evidence that he was dead, he thought), and the world went black.
He woke up to the feeling of someone tapping him on the cheek, and slowly cracked his eyes open.
“Oh, good! I’m glad you’re okay!” The voice came from his idol, All Might, who was standing directly above Izuku. Now he was absolutely, 100% convinced that he was dead. All the same, he couldn’t help crying out in surprise and skittering away, fighting down the light buzzing on his cheek. “Sorry ‘bout getting you caught up in my villain fighting. I don’t usually make mistakes like this, but I was in high spirits on my day off in a new place.” The hero gave a deep laugh, while Izuku could only stare in disbelief. He was still convinced that he was dead, but he was beginning to hope that wasn’t the case, because that would mean All Might was really here, talking to him.
“But! You were a big help! Thanks! I captured him safely!” All Might held up a pair of soda bottles filled with the unconscious remains of the slime villain.
T-the number one hero, All Might! H-he’s really here! He looks completely different in person!
“Oh, right a-autograph, where did- ah!” he glanced down at his notebook, now covered in green gunk. He frantically picked it up and flicked to an empty page only to find – “He already signed it! Aaaaaaaaaaaa!” Iziku bowed up and down so quickly that he might as well have been powering a jackhammer. “Th-thank you so much! It’ll be an heirloom! A family treasure!”
“Okay!” All Might gave him a thumbs-up. “Well, I need to take this guy to the police,” he said, sliding one of the bottles into his pocket. “See you again on the other side of the screen!”
“Wait, already?”
“Pros are constantly fighting enemies and time.”
Wait… please… there are still so many things I need to ask you…
“Well then, I’m counting on your continued support!” All Might leapt off, blowing the blossoms off the nearby trees with the power of his jump. “…Wait.” Feeling a weight on his leg, he glanced down to find the fanboy hanging on for dear life. “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! This is too much, let go!”
“I can’t! I’ll die if I let go now!”
“Er… That’s true.” He conceded.
“I… have… a lot of things… I want to ask you directly!” the fanboy said, lips and hair flapping back like a dog on a freeway.
“Okay, okay! I get it, so close your eyes and mouth if you don’t want to get bugs in them!” He looked around for a secluded spot to set down, coughing slightly and tasting something coppery bubble up into his mouth. Shit.
Once safely on the roof, the fanboy finally let go, though his… everything still seemed rather shaky from the flight. “Th-that was scary…”
“Good grief. If you talk to the people downstairs, I’m sure they’ll let you down,” he said, silently straining against his time limit. “I seriously am outta time, so I really must go.”
“Wait! Um…”
“No! I will not wait!”
“But-!”
Echoes and memories filled his mind. The school counselor when he said he wanted help applying for U.A. His mother, when he came home having been unable to defend himself. His classmates. Kacchan. They had all used different words, but they all meant the same thing. You should probably just give up your dream.
But even so-
“Even if you have a useless Quirk, can you still be a hero?!”
The blonde giant paused, no longer walking away from the boy.
“Can even someone whose Quirk could never save anyone be like you?”
All Might considered his words. “A useless Quirk?” Suddenly a spasm of pain wracked his body, but the boy was looking at the ground and seemed not to have noticed. Oh no, holy shit…
“It might’ve been because my Quirk, Mirror Match, isn’t very powerful, and I get made fun of for it, but I think saving people is super cool. Saving people with a fearless smile. I want to be the greatest hero, like you-!” He looked up and let out a startled cry at the stick figure of a man now standing where All Might had been, surrounded by a cloud of hissing steam. “Y-Y-You’re deflating! Wait, up until now… Fake? A fake?! You’re so skinny!”
All Might just let out a disgruntled sight. “I am All Might-” before a spurt of blood from his mouth interrupted him.
“Aaaaaaaaa! No way!”
“It’s true. You know how the guys at the pool are always flexing and posturing? It’s like that.”
“No way! I-it can’t be… All Might is fearless, he saves everyone with a fearless smile! He’s the greatest!”
“…A fearless smile, huh?” He sighed again and sat down, exhausted. “Now that you’ve seen me like this young man, make sure that you don’t write about it online, even accidentally.” He lifted up his shirt to reveal the mass of bruises and scar tissue on his upper left torso, causing the fanboy to flinch. “It’s an injury I got from an enemy’s attack five years ago. Half my respiratory organs were destroyed, and I lost my whole stomach. I became emaciated from repeated surgeries and the aftereffects. Right now, I can only work as a hero for about three hours a day.”
“That can’t be… Five years ago… Was that when you fought Toxic Chainsaw?”
“You’re well-informed, but a punk like that couldn’t defeat me. This fight was not made public to the world. I asked that it not be made public. I will save people with a smile! The Symbol of Peace cannot be daunted by evil. I smile to show the pressure of heroes, and to trick the fear inside me.”
He sized up the young boy. “You haven’t told me much about your Quirk, so I can’t say for sure that there’s not a type of hero that you could become. But pros are always risking their lives. Wanting to save people is noble, but I can’t just tell you ‘you can become a hero even without power.’ Not all power comes from Quirks; pros cannot get by relying solely on their Quirks, and there are rare pro heroes who have Quirks that they can’t apply to their hero work. But they make up for it with extremely intense training, and their lives are hard and often short.”
He could almost see the young boy’s heart shatter in two. “I see…”
“If you want to help others, then you could also become a police officer. They’re often teased because they get villains delivered to their doorstep, but that is also a good occupation.” He opened the maintenance door to the roof, not looking back at his young fan. “It’s not bad to dream, but you also have to consider what’s realistic, young man.” He descended the stairs into the building. Now, I really need to get this guy to the police. He felt for the bottle in his pocket.
It wasn’t there. And after a moment of panic, an explosion caught his attention from across the city. Don’t tell me.
Izuku had also seen the explosion and had begun to rush towards it. But his steps slowed as he remembered All Might’s words. He instead decided to walk toward home. He moved mostly on autopilot, looking through his hero notes and fighting back hot tears. He’s right. I was ignoring reality because I didn’t want to face it. I really will never be a hero.
A loud blast pulled him out of his trance, and looking across the street he found that his feet had carried him to where the explosions had been coming from. Craning over the crowd to get a clearer view down the alleyway, he saw the sludge villain from earlier, surrounded by flames. B-but All Might captured him. If he’s loose then… his mind flashed back to when he had grabbed the pro hero’s leg before he jumped, and how, come to think of it, he hadn’t remembered seeing the bottles during their rooftop conversation …then it’s my fault!
“Why aren’t the heroes doing anything?” asked a bystander.
“I don’t think they can,” his friend replied, “I heard that villain caught a junior high student and is holding onto them as a hostage.”
Izuku looked closer, as the crowd murmured about when a hero would come. One civilian mentioned seeing All Might earlier that day. All Might. Soon, that seemed to be the question everyone in the crowd was asking. “Where is All Might?”
A hero… a hero will be here soon. Izuku felt a pressure build in his gut, almost like the same that always accompanied his Quirk activating. He did his best to ignore it, to push it down, as he kept craning his neck to get a better view. And then he got it, and the pressure flooded every limb in his body.
It was Kacchan. The villain had Kacchan. And his eyes were screaming for help.
He moved without thinking.
Izuku jostled through the crowd and ducked under the protective divider that one of the pros was holding off, shrugging off the occasional skin contact and the cries of the pros for him to stop and got back. He had no plan, so he simply kept running and tried to remember something, anything he had seen a pro do that might give him a chance. A lucky toss of his backpack into the villain’s eye gave him enough of an opening to get in close and allowed Kacchan a few gulps of oxygen while the villain was distracted, but his clawing away at the slime did no more to free Kacchan than when he himself had been captured. “Kacchan!”
“Why are you here?!”
“My legs moved on their own! I don’t know why, though!” He was sobbing from the fear at this point, but he was still doing everything in his power to dig Kacchan out. “You looked like you were asking for help!”
The villain brought down a slimy appendage down to crush the boy. When the blow never hit, Izuku dared to open his eyes.
“I really am pathetic.”
“All Might!”
“Even though I admonished you, I wasn’t putting what I said into practice! Pros are always risking their lives!” He grabbed ahold of Bakugo’s collar and pulled his other arm back for a punch.
“All Might!” yelled the slime, winding back for another strike.
“Detroit Smash!”
The resulting force from that punch was enough to throw off the weather patterns for the entire rest of that day. The entire alleyway was extinguished and the sludge villain all but disintegrated. The only reason Bakugo and Izuku were not blown away was because of All Might’s vice-like grip on their shirt collars.
After the event, All Might was (of course) swarmed by the media. Meanwhile, the heroes and other emergency responders scolded Izuku harshly for running into a situation where he couldn’t do anything to help, and that it was dangerous for middle schoolers to involve themselves in this sort of thing. None of them seemed to note the irony in praising Bakugo for trying to stand up to the villain with his powerful Quirk right afterwards.
After too many detours for one day, Izuku finally actually made his way home, trudging tiredly through the light rain that All Might had created. And I never got to apologize to All Might for causing the problem.
“Deku!”
He spun around “Kacchan?”
The other boy ran up behind him, still out of breath and with a hoarse voice “I never asked for your help! And you didn’t help me! Got it?! I was fine by myself! Don’t think that just because you tried to play hero means you can look down on me! Are you trying to make me owe you? Are you trying to prove something?! You damn nerd!”
Izuku watched the other boy stamp off after saying his piece. Well… He’s right. I didn’t really help. But still, I’m glad. Now I can move on. Be realistic.
“I am here!”
“A-all Might? Why are you here? You were just surrounded by reporters and-”
“HAHAHAHAHA! Getting away from them was a piece of cake. Why? Because I am All Migh-” and at that moment his muscular form collapsed with another spray of blood from his mouth.
Izuku screamed. That was going to take some getting used to.
“Young man, I come with thanks, a correction, and a suggestion. If you hadn’t been there… if you hadn’t told me about your life… I would’ve turned into a guy in a bodysuit who was all talk. Thank you.”
“That can’t be… It was my fault in the first place. I got in the way of your work, and I said all those impertinent things even though I’m not cut out for being a hero…”
“That’s right. It was because it was none other than the timid, powerless you at the scene that I was able to act.”
“Huh?”
“Top heroes have stories about them from their school days. Most of their stories have one thing in common: they say, ‘my body moved before I had the chance to think.’”
He watched the boy clutch his chest and try to hold back the sobs that were boiling up inside him.
“That was true for you too, wasn’t it?”
“…Yeah!” the boy choked out. Tears were flowing freely, now, and he doubled over onto the ground.
All Might fixed the boy with an intense stare. “I was wrong, young man. You, too, can be a hero.”
Maybe he didn’t expect such an emotional reaction. If he didn’t, maybe he should have. But All Might let the boy lie there for as long as he needed, sobbing on the ground, processing. Since gaining his power, and especially since his injury, he rarely allowed himself the luxury of a quiet moment when he could be helping others. But he knew better than anyone that this moment, of all moments, should not be rushed.
Once the sobs had slowed a bit, he spoke. “You are worthy to inherit my power.”
The boy sucked in a breath, the surprise and confusion that those words created pulling him back to reality. “Inherit your power?”
All Might couldn’t stifle his chuckle at the young boy’s incredulous expression. “What with that face? It’s just a suggestion. The real show starts after this. Listen, young man. You need to decide… whether or not you will accept my power!” This last declaration was accompanied by another spurt of blood.
Seeing that he still didn’t understand, he clarified further. “I’m talking about my power, young man. The tabloids called it ‘superhuman strength’ and a ‘boost,’ and I constantly dodged the question during interviews with a funny joke. Because the Symbol of Peace, All Might, had to be a natural-born hero. But young man, I will tell you the truth. My Quirk was passed on to me like a sacred torch.”
“It was passed onto you…?”
“That’s right. And next, it’s your turn.”
“W-wait! Wait a minute! It’s true that your quirk is something hotly debated as one of the world’s greatest mysteries. So much so that not a single day goes by when I don’t see someone talking about it online. ButwellIdon’treallyunderstandwhatyoumeanbyinherritingorpassingonaQuirkI’veneverheardofanythinglikethatbeforeandit’sneverbeenconjecturedinthedebatewhyisthatisitbecausesincethedawnofhistoryaQuirklikethatwasneverconfirmedinthefirstplaceit’s-”
“You always start out with denial, huh?” All Might cut off the boy before he got too lost in his muttering and analysis. “Nonsense!”
“Wha-?!”
“I may hide a lot of things, but I don’t lie! The power to transfer powers, that is the Quirk I inherited! I was crowned with One For All!”
“One. For. All…”
“That’s right. One person cultivates the power and passes it on to another person, who also cultivates it and passes it on. It is the crystallization of power that spins together the voices of those who need help with a courageous heart.”
“Why are you… Why are you giving me something so great?”
“I have been looking for a successor. And then, I thought that it would be all right for you to inherit it. You may just be a hero fanboy with a weak Quirk, but you were more heroic than anyone else back there!” All Might took a breather and lightened his tone a bit. “Ah, never mind! Well, it’s up to you, anyway. What’ll you do?”
The boy rose to his feet. Determination mixed with the tears in his eyes, and he stood at his full height. “I’ll do it!”
“Ha! An immediate reply. That’s what I thought you’d say!”
The clouds broke, and Izuku’s world shone with the golden light of the sunset.
“Now, about your training…”
The boy suddenly bowed so low that his head nearly hit the ground. “Mr. All Might, sir! Please…”
“Eh?”
“Please, sir, would you join me and my mother for dinner tonight!”
The hero was taken aback a bit. “Well, I-I appreciate the offer, but…” he trailed off, realizing that he had just chosen his successor without finding out his name.
After a moment of awkward silence, Izuku seemed to realize the issue. “Oh, uh. Midoriya, Mr. All Might, sir! Izuku Midoriya.”
“Young Midoriya, then. And not so formal, please. While I appreciate the offer, I can’t-”
“But All Might!” Izuku interjected “There’s a lot to talk about, and I think my mother deserves to know about something this big! A-and even if that wasn’t the case, you did save me today, and Kacchan! It’s the least we can do to repay you. And if you’re past your time limit for today, then it won’t be keeping you from hero work!”
His mother… All Might hadn’t considered that. Secrets and family were always difficult. And as he’d learned from his master, families and enemies were even more difficult. “Young Midoriya…” he sighed. “Let me start by saying that I still believe you should be my successor, and I am not saying any of this to try to dissuade you. In the long history of One For All, each wielder has had their enemies. Some they made on their own, and others they inherited from their predecessors. But besides that, the power of One For All is a great secret, and one that many people would go to great lengths to discover.” He fixed a hard gaze on Izuku and lifted up his shirt, exposing his scar. Izuku flinched just as he had earlier in the day. “Even with our power, we are not immortal. Our families are even less so. Understand that the more your mother knows about this power, the greater risk she is at. Do you understand?”
Izuku paused, digesting his new mentor’s words. “All Might… it doesn’t sit well with me. But do you remember about six years ago, when the pro hero Phlogiston was attacked with his family by a villain?”
The pro nodded. He remembered the news perhaps too well. Off-duty attacks on heroes weren’t common, but they did happen. It was a minor miracle that no one had died, but both Phlogiston and his eldest daughter had sustained serious, permanent injuries.
“Back then, I was still sure I could be a hero. A-and then I saw the news and I was so scared. I even told my mom that I wouldn’t become a hero if it meant she would get hurt. But All Might, she told me that she wasn’t afraid, and that if I could help people as a hero, then she didn’t want my fear for her stopping me from doing that.” He looked up to meet All Might’s eyes. “She’s stood by me and believed in me… almost every step of the way when I wanted to be a hero, even when no one else did. I understand that One For All is an important secret, but if you say that you can make me a hero, she at least deserves to know that much.”
All Might scratched his chin, pondering. “I don’t like it, but very well Young Midoriya. I will meet with your mother, and join you for dinner, if she’ll have a guest. On two conditions.”
“What are they?”
“First,” he said, holding up a finger, “you are not to tell her about One For All itself. There may come a time when you can be more open with her about the source of your power, but now, before you have even inherited it, you must keep it absolutely secret.”
Izuku nodded in confirmation.
“Second,” he moved on, holding up a second finger, “You must keep my identity and condition a secret. As far as your mother is concerned, All Might is whole and hale, and not…” he gestured to himself.
“Deal.”
“Alright then. Lead the way, Young Midoriya.”
“Izukuuuuuuu!” Inko Midoriya practically tacked him as he came in the door, “don’t ever scare me like that again.”
Izuku felt a pang of guilt as he looked at his mother. It was clear she’d been crying. “Sorry, Mom. I’d have been home faster, but after the attack I had to give a statement to the police, and then the heroes wanted to talk, and then I had to dodge reporters, and then on the way home I ran into- uh-” he glanced behind him, and it was only then that Inko noticed the skeletal stranger standing sheepishly in the doorway.
“Toshinori Yagi,” he said, bowing and holding out his business card in both hands, “I’m the trainer and personal secretary of All Might. Please forgive my intrusion, Mrs. Midoriya.”
“A-All Might’s secretary?!” Inko balked.
“Sorry mom,” Izuku rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, “I should have asked before bringing him, but he said that he had seen the news and All Might wanted him to discuss something with us.”
“N-no, no problem at all, p-please come in Mr. Yagi, you must be hungry.”
He gave a warm smile, “Thank you very much.”
“I’ll get right to the point,” ‘Mr. Yagi’ said after having a few bites of the katsudon pork cutlet that Inko had provided for him. “I am here on behalf of All Might as his representative. He would have liked to come himself, but he was otherwise occupied with his duties.”
To Inko’s credit, she gave a shaky nod rather than passing out from nerves right there.
He continued. “Simply put, All Might was greatly impressed by your son’s willingness to leap into action to protect his classmate. While there was little he could do as a civilian, he did manage to buy enough time for All Might to arrive and resolve the situation, and in conditions even many pro heroes would have struggled under. Both he and I believe that Young Midoriya has the potential to be a great hero, and we want to do what we can to give him a chance to grow into that potential.”
“Which means… what, exactly?”
“We would like to offer him training, free of charge. Mostly under myself, but All Might would oversee some of the training personally.” Seeing the pale, shocked look on her face, he held up a hand. “Please allow me to clarify. This wouldn’t be an internship. We have no intention of putting Young Midoriya in harm’s way as part of his training. Rather, we would like to help him build a diet and exercise program that, if followed, would help him build up his strength quickly without burning himself out. Aside from physical training, he would do some community service work, and we would also like to look into designing special Quirk training to help him develop his Quirk to a greater extent and use it in ways he may not have thought of. Though, I’m afraid I haven’t had the chance to learn much about Young Midoriya’s Quirk yet, so that may take a bit longer for All Might and myself to plan…”
Inko’s head was spinning, but she was processing all of this at her own pace. She glanced over at her son. “Izuku, would you show Mr. Yagi your Quirk, just to make sure it’s okay?”
Izuku nodded. “Mr. Yagi, may I please see your hand?”
He nodded, holding it out across the table.
Izuku gripped it, and there was a flash of light. Then, sitting where Izuku had been, there was a copy of Mr. Yagi, the only differences being the colors of his eyes, hair, and clothes.
“It’s a Quirk called Mirror Match,” Yagi-Izuku explained, and the pro hero noted for a moment how odd it was to hear his own voice coming out of someone else’s mouth. Izuku began glowing again, and after about ten seconds returned to his own appearance. “When I make direct physical contact with someone, I change to look like them unless I focus on it not happening. Everything changes except for my hair and eye color. It’s mostly cosmetic, though. Sometimes my strength or speed changes to be a little closer to theirs, but mostly I stay closer to what I’m capable of with my own body. Once or twice I’ve gotten a weaker copy of a transformation or mutant Quirk when I changed, but I can’t really produce anything using them. Also, if someone’s body is really different from mine, I won’t be able to transform into them.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know how to help Izuku develop it very well. I can pull small objects towards me, and my ex-husband can breathe fire. But Izuku’s quirk isn’t like anything in either of our family trees. The doctors say it’s a mutation of his Quirk gene.”
Mr. Yagi rubbed his chin. A mutation, eh? Well, that certainly makes a sudden power-up more convenient. “Hmm… It will certainly take some planning, but as with everything else, you have potential.” Izuku’s face lit up at that. He turned to Inko. “I believe that Young Midoriya already has his answer, but he wanted to make sure that you were part of this discussion, and the All Might agency would also like to take your opinions into account as his mother. Will you consider our offer, Mrs. Midoriya?”
She looked at him, studying his face closely. “You’re serious about all of this.”
“I am.”
She turned to Izuku. “And I’m sure you recognize what a great opportunity this is, but are you ready to commit to it? And you won’t fall behind in your studies if you do this?”
“Yes.” Izuku nodded profusely.
“Then, Mr. Yagi… please help my son reach his dream. Please help him be a hero.”
Mr. Yagi gave a smile to match All Might’s “Yes Ma’am!”